The Authority for Public Administration Information Systems, which was established by government decree in February to provide a single overseer for all government computer projects, has nominated its president, four commissioners and managing director, and is organising its structure, Il Sole 24 Ore reports. With its top managers selected, the new agency is beginning to draft various regulations concerning its organisation, its functioning, personnel administration and budgeting, while initiating hiring of staff. The law authorises the agency to hire up to 150 people from either government agencies or companies with majority state shareholding. A large proportion of the Authority’s staff will be technicians who will be able to evaluate and recommend technical parameters for all government information system projects.
Contract proposals
To prevent a delay in the automation process, the new agency has said that interested ministries can already forward to it contract proposals for the acquisition of materials and services amounting to over $200,000. In a separate round table with the business journal, computer executives unanimously welcomed the arrival of Authority. In Italy I believe we have arrived at a situation where the efficiency and quality of public services is limited… Authority is welcome; we have always asked for a point of reference for public administration projects in Italy, said Bruno Lamborghini, managing director of strategy and research for Olivetti. Now that Authority has been established, we’ve also got to move ourselves so that it goes in a positive direction in building national systems. This will be an important route, but there are others, like the privatisation of telecommunications, which will create new demand. Said Elio Catania, vice-president of IBM Semea, We’re awaiting a change in the world of government. Too many events have been delayed, or are being delayed or are not accelerating the necessary process of rationalisation in government that would serve all of us, as companies and as citizens. The Authority has been created: let’s say it has been the correct decision, but we are now awaiting the full-blown operation of the agency and of the complete cycle of public sector investment. Franco Giglio, president of Unisys Italia, echoed Catania, saying, Undoubtedly it is important that the Authority, an optimal initiative, begins operation. One of the presuppositions under which the Authority wants to operate is that the government entities make three-year programmes and follow up on those programmes. We, too, in a certain sense must align with these three-year plans so that, when we present our responses to tenders, they will contain the same presuppositions Authority requires. A spokeswoman for Database Informatica SpA, Italy’s third-largest software house, said, although the exact role and tasks for the agency have not been defined, an overseeing organism was definitely necessary. Some of the ministries are computerised, some are not. I have even heard that in one of the ministries, they have five different systems for managing their personnel!
